In Which A Nobody Gets Formally Trained By A Keyblade Master

[keybearer_lost]

Or,
"How Many Ways Can Fel and Random Eff Up KH2?"

Dramatis Personae
Aqua, a Keyblade Master and a girl who has fallen into darkness, as portrayed by keybearer_lost
Roxas, a wielder of the Keyblade and a Nobody affiliated with Organization XIII, as portrayed by seasaltzombie
A Collection of Heartless, as portrayed by heart_nomming

Table of contents
1. Session Zero
2. First meeting
3.

Comments

[keybearer_lost]

Somewhere along the way, Aqua had lost track of time.

It wasn't like it was a hard thing to lose track of, really. In this place there wasn't any sort of sunlight or regular change to keep track of it all, only a soft stationary light over the sea that gave her a sense of space. In the moments when she allowed herself to rest, she would sit on the shore and watch the way it reflected off the gently cresting waves. It soothed her in a way, to have that there.

Those shadows that followed her never came from the sea, after all.

Really, the only sense of time Aqua had was when her body told her it was time to stop trying to move forward, that general ache and light-headed feeling that told her she would become an easy target if she didn't stop soon.

It was at the beginning of such a time, body weary from having just finished off another crowd of the smaller shadows, that she came upon another figure, hunched over, sitting on a rock. Aqua paused, uncertain. She had yet to see anything else here aside from those shadows in varying sizes and shapes. Was this a trick?

Or maybe.... another person had gotten trapped here as well? She had some trouble remembering the last time she'd even seen another person, much less talked to one. Hopefully her mind wasn't beginning to play tricks on her.

"Hello?" she called tentatively and was surprised her voice didn't sound hoarse from disuse. In a flurry of light she summoned her Master's Keyblade to her side. It didn't hurt to be on the safe side.

[seasaltzombie]

The last thing Roxas had expected to hear was another voice - let alone a girl's voice. Of course, he didn't register it was a girl at first, he was that startled. Startled enough to jump and start out of his curled-up position on the rock, summoning his own Keyblade out of sheer instinct.

"Who's there?" he demanded as he jumped to his feet. He squinted into the darkness, frowning suspiciously. Only other Nobodies could use the dark corridors to get somewhere like this, right? Was it someone from the Organisation come to check on him, or...?

[keybearer_lost]

A Keyblade?

But--how? She would've sensed its light before it appeared! And that boy, now that she got a look at his face--

He looked just like Ven.

She swung her Keyblade down, going into her basic fighting stance. She knew better than to attack first. That was how these shadows tended to swarm a person and if this was some kind of trick she wasn't going to fall for it.

But then he spoke, and her heart clenched painfully. What kind of friend was she, to realize she'd forgotten until that very moment how his voice had sounded--!

"My name is Aqua," she said carefully, still wary, "Who are you?"

[seasaltzombie]

Now that he'd recovered a little from the shock, he could get a better look at the newcomer. He was a little surprised to see that it was a girl - well, not a girl, exactly. She looked older than he was. And she wasn't wearing a black coat, either, so she couldn't be someone with the Organisation - or anyone like that Organisation impostor, come to that.

But - wait a second. Was that another Keyblade? There was someone else apart from him and Xion and the strange boy in his dreams who could use it?

Roxas still didn't know what was going on. He still didn't know if he could trust the girl - Aqua - at all. But if she had a Keyblade - then she could answer some of his questions, right? At least he'd have a better chance than if he asked anyone else.

He stood guardedly, still keeping a tight grip on his Keyblade, but made no move to attack. "I'm Roxas."

[keybearer_lost]

"Nice to meet you," she said more out of politeness than anything else. There was something about this boy that disturbed her--and not just the fact he bore such a strong resemblance to one of her dearest friends. It was like something was missing from him, but with the darkness of this world clouding her senses like it was tar on her hands, she couldn't be sure.

But he was guarded, ready to attack her if she made the wrong move. She didn't blame him for that. She was a stranger, after all, and he had found himself in this world through one means or another.

She relaxed her stance and dismissed her Keyblade. If he proved to be a threat, Aqua knew she could defend herself. If not, well, standing there with her weapon ready wouldn't get them anywhere.

"How did you get here? It's been a long time since I've seen anyone else. Or anything besides the beach and the shadows."

[seasaltzombie]

Roxas, on the other hand, did not dismiss his Keyblade, not just yet. He did relax his stance, though, standing straight with it held loosely, unthreateningly, at his side. She'd gotten rid of hers - which could be a ruse, but for some reason, he felt more inclined to believe the best of her. The question, though, surprised him - did she live here? This world seemed even grimmer than the World That Never Was... so maybe she was stuck? But how could you get stuck when the only way in or out was by...

"Through a dark corridor, of course," he blurted out, taken aback for a moment. Shouldn't that be obvious? He didn't know of any other way you could travel between worlds, not really.

[keybearer_lost]

"A what?" she asked, giving him a confused look. True, she had traveled through the Darkness, but at the time she'd had armor to protect her, and a Keyblade she knew how to use to open a gate and travel between the worlds. How could this boy travel the darkness without what appeared to be either one?

"You can travel through the Darkness?" she continued, pleased he seemed to be relaxing, at least. She tucked a hand up to her chest, debating for a moment. She knew there were other Keyblade wielders out there aside from the ones she knew about. It was entirely possible there were other ways to traverse the worlds. She just hadn't had the opportunity to learn about them.

[seasaltzombie]

The slightest of pauses; then he nodded. "Yeah," he said simply. She seemed... surprised. Well, he guessed that most people he'd seen in other worlds - the ones with hearts - didn't know what a dark corridor was either, since they couldn't use them, or didn't need to. No - it was more than that, wasn't it? He remembered someone mentioning that it was dangerous for people with hearts to use them, for some reason.

He glanced down at his Keyblade. Maybe they could both learn from each other, somehow.

He looked back up at Aqua, his decision made. "... You had a Keyblade too," he said, finally dismissing his as he said it.

[keybearer_lost]

"Well, yes," she said, tempted to summon it again to show it, but deciding it was for the best not to. He seemed wary of her--she didn't blame him given their current location--and she didn't want to provoke him unnecessarily.

"I was trained to wield one since I was a child--alongside my two best friends."

Mentioning Terra and Ven in such a manner made her heart clench painfully. Where was Terra now? Had he overcome Master Xehanort? Had the person they'd become gone on to do great things? Part of her cynically reminded her that it couldn't be the case, but she could hope. It was all she had left in this prison of her own choosing.

"What about you? Who took you in and trained you?"

[seasaltzombie]

Trained? Roxas had never been very good at hiding - well, not what he was feeling, being a Nobody and all, but as far as he was concerned, it was the same sort of thing. But his reactions showed on his face, and this time was no different as he gave Aqua a puzzled, confused look at her words.

"No one, really," he said truthfully after a moment's pause. "Well," he amended, "I guess I was taken in, but I wasn't taught to use the Keyblade. I didn't even realise that there were other people like you who could use it too." His wariness from before was almost completely forgotten now, replaced by a growing curiosity and a whole host of questions.

[keybearer_lost]

Oddly enough, that made sense to her. There were stories of people who were chosen to wield it, but for one reason or another the person who had chosen them had never been able to locate them or follow up on it. When the time came for their Keyblade to manifest--usually in a moment of dire need.

Maybe this boy, who had been taken in, was one such wielder?

"There's a few Keybearers, but we're scattered right now," she said, hoping it was the best way to explain. While she found herself trusting this boy if for no other reason than because he reminded her of a strange combination of Ven and Terra, she wasn't ready to tell him her story. He was practically a stranger to her!

"To be honest, I don't know how many other Keybearers there are. I've been trapped in this place for a long time now and even before then--we were so spread out it was rare to come across one you didn't know firsthand."

[seasaltzombie]

"You're trapped here?" he repeated, his expression softening slightly. It seemed like the easiest - or maybe the most pressing, he didn't know - thing to focus on, while his mind worked to understand the rest. So there were other people who could use the Keyblade - Keybearers - and you could get formally trained... why hadn't anyone ever told him this stuff? Was it something to do with how Aqua was trapped?

He thought he understood why she wouldn't have known many other people like them, though. "You and the other Keybearers must have been spread out across other worlds, right?" he asked, looking to confirm his guess.

[keybearer_lost]

"Yes," she said, to both questions, "There's too many worlds out there that need to be looked after for us to work together all the time. Usually you only keep contact with your teacher and those you trained with once you begin your duties."

A small smile of pride, and regret, came across her face. That was right. Soon after becoming Masters it would've been likely she, Terra, and Ven would've had to separate anyway, and take their place in looking after the various worlds. Who knew how long it would've been until they saw one another again?

But now wasn't the time. She'd made a promise. She intended to see it through even if it meant walking until her death.

"You haven't met another Keybearer before, have you?"

[seasaltzombie]

Even though she was smiling, she somehow looked... sad. That was what Roxas thought, although he supposed that he couldn't really be sure.

He shook his head, though, in answer to her question. "Not really," he admitted. Then he hesitated as a sudden thought occurred to him. "Well, apart from Xion. She's one of my best friends."

Xion... how was she, after being brought back to the castle that way? Were Saix and Xemnas angry with her? Was she alright? He knew that she'd wondered about why she was able to use the Keyblade too. Maybe Roxas had found the answers for both of them. If he was able to get help from Aqua... he couldn't wait to see Xion's face if they both finally knew!

"Xion's like me," he continued, feeling the need to explain. The more Aqua knew, the more she might be able to help, right? "Neither of us know why we have the Keyblade."

[keybearer_lost]

Another person with the Keyblade? Was whoever took Roxas in looking for them specifically or was there more to it than that? Aqua studied him for a moment, thinking about the possibilities before ticking them off on her fingers.

"The only ways I know about how someone could get a Keyblade are a Master either choosing and performing a rite on you when you were younger or someone else was chosen to receive it but, for whatever reason, the Keyblade itself didn't think that person was right for it and went to the closest person whose heart was best suited for it."

Except something about him told her that wasn't right, wasn't a suitable reason at all, but what could she say when that was all she knew? Aqua sighed and shifted her stance. So he and his friend were best friends? Aqua couldn't help but hope things would turn out better for them than they had for her and her friends.

She barely knew this boy who reminded her so much of both her friends in different ways--Terra's trusting nature, Ven's eagerness--yet she couldn't help but worry about what the future held for him and this Xion. They didn't even know why or how they attained Keyblades. Maybe.... maybe things could turn out better for the two of them?

[seasaltzombie]

"So it's to do with your heart...?" Roxas said, more to himself than to Aqua. His voice was more than a little subdued, and he glanced down at his right hand - after all, neither he nor Xion had hearts of their own. So that couldn't be the reason for them, could it. He guessed that it was just another way that he and Xion were "unique", along with their memory loss and the fact that they could even use the Keyblade in the first place.

Roxas almost thought he'd rather just be normal. Then at least he might be able to get answers when he wanted them.

But then... if neither he nor Xion had hearts for the Keyblade to choose, what about their Others, the people that they had been? Had he been a Keybearer when he had his heart?

He hesitated. Outside of the Organisation, he didn't think anyone knew about the true nature of its members. They were forbidden to interact with anyone from other worlds, after all. But then, Roxas had already broken that rule just now, hadn't he? So what was one more when nobody was giving him answers there?

He took a breath, hesitated for a little longer, then took the plunge. "What if... say for some reason, you didn't have a heart. What then?"